Thomas C. Theiner 'TheinerThon' - 17 September, 2023

We were joined by Thomas C. Theiner @noclador (Twitter), retired Italian artilleryman, filmmaker & documentarian, who returned to MriyaReport for a half marathon segment. We enjoyed a comprehensive, both granular and compact review of the state of play.

As Ukraine contests Crimea, hits the harbour installations of Sevastopol, and saturates Russian air-defenses we went through the premise for and status of the counteroffensive, its military logic, phasing and challenges, the various front sectors and key attack vectors. Thomas explained how Ukraine systematically and methodically degrades Russian air defences, artillery, logistics and reserves in order to open gaps in the South theatre and on Crimea.

As to Crimea we touched upon the necessary, hard prior crossing of the Dniepr, forming of a beachhead and as well the challenge of advancing and piercing through Perekop or Henichesk towards Dzhankoi. Thomas mapped out tactical options for Ukrainians in manoeuvre not unlike the original plans for the landing and battle of Anzio.

Thomas puts the current battles into perspective with experiences and contrasting today's minefield density with El-Alamein versus Korea, the Israeli-Syrian, the Iran-Iraq war, as well as Nagorna-Karabach. As an artillery expert, Thomas reviewed the current use of the artillery systems led by the precision and high rates of fire of the semi-automatic PzH2000, the soon to be in theatre, fully automatic RCH155, as well as the Archers, Cesars and Zuzanas.

Together with our audience Thomas once more discussed a variety of weapons systems, drones, missiles and requirements as well as the political framework for the support of Ukraine, debunking Russian propaganda, Western fallacies and common narratives. 

The TheinerThon was moderated by Axel @BalticSnowTiger.

Remember, you can always find more from the Mriya Report on our website ⁠⁠mriyareport.org⁠⁠ as well as on Twitter ⁠⁠@MriyaReport⁠⁠.